Chapter 3 - Four Days Before the Wedding
The name on Marco’s tablet belonged to Daniel Mercer.
For twelve years, Daniel had served as one of the Conti family’s outside financial advisers.
He was not a member of Alessandro’s inner circle, but he was close enough to understand the architecture of the family’s legitimate fortune—real estate holdings, investment partnerships, trusts established for Rosanna, charitable foundations, and properties accumulated over several generations.
Most importantly, Daniel knew where Alessandro’s blind spots were.
Alessandro looked at the screen.
“You’re certain?”
Marco nodded.
“The hidden phone contacted a number registered through a shell account, but our security team matched the usage pattern to Mercer.”
“When?”
“Twice this month. Once last week. And again today.”
Rosanna stared at them.
“Daniel?”
Alessandro hated the disbelief in his mother’s voice.
“He helped your father.”
“I know.”
“He helped me after your father died.”
“I know.”
Rosanna shook her head slowly.
“He sent flowers every Christmas.”
Emma sat quietly beside her.
That detail somehow made the betrayal feel worse.
Flowers.
Birthday cards.
Condolences.
People imagined treachery arriving with sinister expressions and obvious warning signs.
In reality, sometimes it arrived with handwritten Christmas cards.
Alessandro walked toward the far end of the clinic waiting room.
“Where is Mercer now?”
“His office is empty.”
“Home?”
“No.”
“Airport?”
“We’re checking.”
Alessandro’s voice dropped.
“Find him.”
Marco nodded.
Rosanna looked at her son.
“Alessandro.”
He turned.
“Do not become the man your father was when he was angry.”
The warning landed heavily.
Emma glanced between them.
She knew enough about the Conti name to understand what Rosanna meant.
Alessandro returned to his mother.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone.”
“Promise me.”
He looked into her eyes.
“I promise.”
Rosanna relaxed slightly.
“We handle this lawfully.”
“Yes.”
“No revenge.”
“Mother.”
“Promise.”
Alessandro almost smiled despite everything.
“You already made me.”
“I want to hear it twice.”
“I promise.”
Emma looked down, hiding a faint smile.
Even in crisis, Rosanna remained Rosanna.
Bellini entered carrying instructions for the evening.
“She can return home, but I want a nurse present overnight.”
Emma immediately said, “I’ll stay.”
Bellini looked at her.
“You’re not a nurse.”
“No, but I can help.”
Rosanna patted Emma’s hand.
“You’ve already done enough.”
Emma shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you tonight.”
Alessandro studied her.
Most employees tried to avoid becoming involved in Conti family problems.
Emma seemed incapable of doing that.
“Fine,” he said.
She glanced at him.
“Fine?”
“You stay.”
“I wasn’t asking you.”
Rosanna laughed.
It was the first time Alessandro had heard his mother laugh all day.
He looked at Emma.
Emma’s eyes widened as if she had just realized whom she had contradicted.
“Sorry.”
Alessandro surprised himself.
“Don’t be.”
Back at the mansion, Vanessa had been moved from the drawing room to a guest suite.
Not locked.
But guarded.
Her second phone had been found hidden beneath a folded towel in the powder room.
She claimed it belonged to a friend.
No one believed her.
Alessandro did not confront her immediately.
He wanted information first.
That frightened Vanessa more.
She sat at the edge of the guest bed, staring at the wall.
For three years, she had imagined this house becoming hers.
Not emotionally.
Practically.
The Conti estate represented permanence.
Money.
Protection.
Status.
A last name powerful enough to erase every humiliation she had endured growing up.
She had never expected to love Alessandro.
That had not been part of the arrangement.
Then, inconveniently, she had.
At least in the way Vanessa understood love.
She loved being seen beside him.
Loved the way rooms changed when he entered.
Loved that people who had dismissed Vanessa DeMarco suddenly remembered her birthday.
Loved private jets, private dining rooms, private elevators.
Loved the possibility that no one would ever again tell her she did not belong.
But Rosanna had always frightened her.
Not because the older woman was cruel.
Because she could see.
Rosanna noticed details.
Questions.
Timing.
She once asked Vanessa why she knew so much about a trust agreement that had never been discussed publicly.
Vanessa had laughed it away.
But from that moment, Daniel had become nervous.
“She’s becoming a liability,” he had said.
Vanessa remembered their first real meeting six years earlier.
Not at Alessandro’s charity gala, as she had told everyone.
In Daniel Mercer’s office.
“You want access to a world that would never invite you in,” Daniel had said.
Vanessa had sat across from him wearing a cheap designer imitation and a confidence she did not feel.
“What do you want?”
“Patience.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you meet Alessandro naturally.”
“How?”
“I’ll arrange the opportunity.”
“And then?”
“You make him love you.”
Vanessa had laughed.
“You say that like ordering lunch.”
Daniel had smiled.
“Men like Alessandro are easier than you think.”
He had been wrong.
Alessandro was not easy.
It took nearly a year before he trusted her.
Another year before he introduced her to his mother.
Three years before he proposed.
Daniel grew impatient.
Vanessa grew nervous.
Then Rosanna’s questions became sharper.
So Daniel changed the plan.
Not murder.
He had been clear about that.
“She only needs to appear medically incapable.”
That would trigger temporary financial mechanisms.
Daniel already controlled portions of the advisory process.
Vanessa, once married, would acquire standing in several household and family decisions.
Together, they could move assets before Alessandro understood what was happening.
At least that had been the theory.
Now Vanessa sat alone in a guarded bedroom while the antique clock upstairs held proof of what she had become.
She covered her face.
For the first time, she wondered if Daniel had ever intended to share anything with her.
A knock came at the door.
Vanessa stood.
Alessandro entered.
Alone.
Her heart jumped.
“Alessandro.”
He closed the door.
She rushed toward him.
“Thank God. Everyone is behaving like I’m some criminal. Your mother was confused, Emma exaggerated everything, and Marco practically searched me like—”
“Sit.”
His voice was quiet.
She stopped.
“Please.”
“Sit down, Vanessa.”
She did.
Alessandro remained standing.
“Dr. Bellini found something in my mother’s blood.”
Vanessa’s face stayed still.
“What?”
“A substance he never prescribed.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she accidentally took something.”
“Maybe.”
Vanessa watched him carefully.
“Is she okay?”
“She will be.”
Relief crossed Vanessa’s face too quickly.
Alessandro noticed.
“Good,” she said. “Then this whole awful misunderstanding—”
“Why did you contact Daniel Mercer?”
Silence.
Vanessa blinked.
“Who?”
He almost admired the instinct.
Fast.
Immediate.
But not convincing.
“You heard me.”
“I know Daniel. Everyone in your family knows Daniel.”
“Why did you message him from a hidden phone?”
“I didn’t.”
Alessandro pulled the phone from his coat and placed it on the table.
Vanessa stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
“It was found where you hid it.”
“I didn’t hide anything.”
“Stop.”
The word was soft.
Vanessa did.
Alessandro sat opposite her.
“I’m going to give you one opportunity.”
“For what?”
“To tell the truth.”
“I am telling the truth.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Alessandro felt almost nothing.
Perhaps three years of affection should have made him vulnerable.
Instead, all he could see was his mother struggling to breathe.
“Did Daniel ask you to alter my mother’s medication?”
“No.”
“Did he ask you to obtain her signature?”
“No.”
“Did he ask you to make her appear medically incompetent?”
Vanessa stood.
“This is insane.”
“Sit.”
“I will not sit here while you accuse me because some maid—”
“Emma has nothing to do with the lab results.”
Vanessa stopped.
There it was again.
Emma.
The maid.
The woman who had ruined everything simply because she refused to look away.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You’re defending her now?”
“I’m defending my mother.”
“You think Emma cares about your mother?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You know nothing about her.”
“Neither did I.”
His answer wounded her more than she expected.
Alessandro continued.
“And yet when nobody was watching, Emma protected someone who could offer her nothing.”
He looked directly into Vanessa’s eyes.
“When you believed nobody was watching, you became someone I don’t recognize.”
Vanessa’s tears became real.
“I did love you.”
Alessandro’s face changed slightly.
“Did?”
She realized the mistake.
“I mean I do.”
He stood.
“The wedding is canceled.”
Vanessa went pale.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, Alessandro. You cannot make a decision like that when you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
“That’s worse.”
He moved toward the door.
Vanessa grabbed his arm.
“Please.”
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“Three years,” she whispered. “You’re throwing away three years.”
“You threw them away.”
He opened the door.
Then Vanessa said the one thing that made him stop.
“You think Daniel chose me randomly?”
Alessandro turned.
Her expression had changed.
No tears now.
Only bitterness.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa smiled weakly.
“Ask your mother why your father almost fired Daniel twenty years ago.”
Alessandro stared.
“My father trusted him.”
“Not at the end.”
“How would you know?”
“Because Daniel told me.”
“What happened?”
Vanessa sat back down.
“Apparently your father discovered money missing from one of the family companies.”
Alessandro’s expression sharpened.
“How much?”
“Enough to ruin a man.”
“And Daniel?”
“He was going to be exposed.”
“What stopped my father?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“His death.”
The room became completely silent.
Alessandro’s father, Vittorio Conti, had died in a car accident nineteen years earlier.
A wet highway.
A damaged barrier.
A tragedy investigated and closed.
Alessandro stared at Vanessa.
“Be very careful.”
“I’m telling you what Daniel told me.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because by then I was already involved.”
“Involved in what?”
Vanessa looked toward the doorway.
“More than you know.”
Alessandro took one step toward her.
“What did Mercer do to my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Vanessa.”
“I don’t know!”
Her voice cracked.
“But Daniel was terrified of Rosanna because she still has your father’s private papers.”
Alessandro froze.
“My mother has nothing.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“That’s what you think.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
She swallowed.
“All Daniel ever said was that if Rosanna remembered where Vittorio hid his final ledger, everything would come apart.”
Alessandro stared at her.
“What ledger?”
Vanessa’s eyes met his.
“The one your father was carrying the night he died.”
Upstairs, Rosanna had returned home.
Emma helped her into bed.
As she adjusted the blanket, Rosanna suddenly grabbed her wrist.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I never told Alessandro.”
Emma leaned closer.
“What?”
Rosanna looked toward the antique clock.
Then toward the locked cabinet beside the fireplace.
“My husband did not believe his accident was going to be an accident.”
Emma’s breath caught.
Rosanna whispered:
“Three days before he died, Vittorio gave me a key.”
May you like
And after nineteen years, she finally remembered what it opened.
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